Chocolate Zucchini Loaf

There is a stand of baked goods at our local Farmer’s Market and they sell an amazing zucchini bread. As enticing as it is, I know well that this healthy sounding bread is often far from healthy with more sugar and fat than I would like in a baked good. After picking up a handful of zucchini squash last week I was determined to create a healthier zucchini loaf.

This zucchini loaf recipe yields a moist, chocolaty treat with a tender crumb. We used yogurt and applesauce to replace a hefty amount of fat typically found in zucchini bread recipes. We also used a healthier flour and coconut palm sugar for an improved nutritional profile.

We use a lot of farro or spelt flour in baking as it is much higher in nutritional value, rich in fiber, and actually lower in calories than regular white flour. You can buy both whole grain farro flour, which is flour that the entire farro grain has been ground into flour, or white farro flour where the outer husk is removed before it is ground leaving you with a finer flour more similar to all-purpose flour. You could also use white whole wheat flour.

Zucchini is high in fiber, water, vitamin A, vitamin C and potassium which boost your immune system and promote the health of your heart, skin, lungs and eyes.

Coconut palm sugar is used instead of regular sugar as the manufacturing process is more natural and it also contains some minor amounts of nutrients as well as inulin fiber.

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and coat an 8 x4 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
In a small bowl, beat the sugar, oil and eggs until well blended and add the applesauce and yogurt.
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
Mix together the wet and dry ingredients just until moist and incorporates and then stir in the zucchini and chocolate chips.
Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let cool 15 minutes, then remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack to room temperature before slicing.